Sales representatives at a Dell call center in Oregon have filed a class …

Share this story

Dell is facing a class action lawsuit from disgruntled employees at its Roseburg, Oregon call center. Sales representatives who work at the center claim that Dell rips them off in a whole host of ways, including (but not limited to) routinely undercounting hours worked, not paying employees for required meetings, and deducting more time for lunch then employees actually take. The lawsuit seeks class action status for all of the company's phone sales representatives in the country; if the request is granted, the case could become another distraction for Dell, which has recently focused on rebuilding its reputation for quality customer service.

The complaint was filed in US District Court on February 8, and it doesn't paint Dell as a great place to work (Dell has not yet responded to the complaint). The lawsuit alleges that Dell uses the Kronos timekeeping system, but that the software is deeply flawed. It "regularly and routinely" does not record all hours worked, and the only way to correct the record is to have a supevisor make the change. "This is rarely successful," says the complaint, "either because the supervisor does not make the correction or Kronos still fails to adequately record the time."

The lawsuit charges that Dell has been aware of the problems for years, but has yet to make any meaningful changes. It also claims that Kronos automatically deducts one hour for lunch, even though most employees at the call center take only a 30 or 45-minute break. In addition, employees are required to show up for training meetings that occur before their shift begins—and they aren't paid for their time.

According to the complaint, the end result is that Dell routinely underpays its employees and manages to avoid paying the overtime that many of the sales representatives would otherwise receive. "The net effect of Dell's policy and practice instituted and approved by company managers is that Dell willfully fails to pay overtime compensation and willfully fails to keep accurate time records in order to save payroll costs," concludes the complaint.